At one time, a majority of mothers nourished their newborn infants by breast-feeding, but over the years, the practice of feeding infants with formula has become more commonplace. However, medical doctors and health experts are increasingly aware of the fact there are many advantages to using breast milk. This is due, at least in part because infant formula is not sophisticated enough to supplant the benefits of breast milk and further, because the content of breast milk tends to change based on the infant's nutritional needs. There is also increasing support for encouraging the use of breast milk for its immunological benefits. For at least these reasons, increasing numbers of women are once again turning to the practice of breast-feeding their children.
A woman who is nursing an infant typically will express breast milk to store for times when she is unable or unavailable to breast feed her infants. A woman may express her milk by using an electric or a manual pumping device, known in the art as a breast pump, in conjunction with a funnel, known as a breast shield. Typically, the woman holds the breast shield tightly against her breast and nipple to apply suction generated by the breast pump thereto and to direct the flow of milk into a storage container.
Often, because of the length of time required to express and collect breast milk, a woman may desire to express both breasts simultaneously. To extract milk from both breasts at the same time, the woman must typically hold a funnel with each hand against her breasts, leaving her in an awkward position, and unable to do anything else with her hands.
In the past, brassieres for breast-feeding are typically made so as to allow a nursing infant access to the woman's breast. A typical example of this type of brassiere is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,501,860, which shows a brassiere with cups that allow an infant access to the woman's breasts by means of a flap that may be folded back from a fastened condition covering the breasts.
While prior-art nursing brassieres allow an infant access to a woman's breast, they are most often not constructed to also receive and support a funnel and an associated milk container (bottle) attached to a breast pump to allow a woman to express breast milk. Those nursing brassieres that are designed for supporting a breast pump generally utilize custom brassiere features to attach to a proprietary hands-free device, which limits the user to a specific brassiere manufacture or model sometimes in combination with a matching hands-free device adapted for that brassiere. Because of the complexity of setup and adjustment and the number of components involved the marketplace has not widely accepted some of these devices.
For at least the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a device designed to allow fast, easy and secure attachment, and adjustment, of a breast shield funnel and further related breast pump apparatus to a nursing bra for expressing milk.